Deadly, uncompromising, it was a warning Sierra would have definitely heeded if she were in the other girl’s shoes.

Marlena’s answer was another classic sneer.

“I would have never been forced into this decision if you had just returned to Boston and resumed the engagement as you were supposed to do. You could have fucked your little bunny all you wanted to then and I would have been all for it. All I needed was your ring and your influence, darling.”

“As long as you and your little crime family had their greedy fingers in my bank account you mean?” John growled.

Surprise glittered in Marlena’s eyes. “You think it was your money I wanted?” A light laugh left her lips. “Darling, it wasn’t that. It was your prestige, your law firm, it was your sterling reputation and your ability to save the worst of the criminals from their own crimes. My family needed your legal abilities, not your money.”

John stared back at his ex-fiancée in shock. He couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.

“What the hell makes you or your family think I would have ever defended them? What the hell makes you think you’re going to fix the problem by threatening us?”

“I’m not simply going to threaten you, I’m going to kill you, John,” Marlena promised him. “I made a lot of promises to my family, and there are very few ways to make up for the fact that I couldn’t deliver. Killing you is one of them.”

John stared back at her silently for long moments. “You’re telling me they demanded you kill me?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m telling you I broke a promise and now I have to prove my loyalty to them in another way. This is the only way I have of doing so. There are very few entrances into this world, John. And if getting what I want means I have to bloody my hands a bit, then so be it.”

“And that’s all life means to you?” he asked her, suddenly realizing that her apparent lack of emotion truly went clear to the soul.

The realization didn’t surprise him, though he imagined it should have. After all, he had been engaged to her, and hadn’t known the true measure of the woman she was.

Marlena shook her head at his question. “I didn’t say I would enjoy killing you, John.” She glanced back at Sierra. “Though I believe I will truly enjoy killing your little sex bunny. I think I want to hurt her first though. Hurt her in ways she can’t even imagine for daring to attempt to take what was mine.”

The hell she would.

As though Marlena weren’t holding a gun, John reached over, snagged his pants from the floor, and making certain he was between Marlena’s gun and Sierra, pulled them on and zipped up.

“Do you think you can keep sheltering her, John?” Marlena asked curiously. “Once I put a hole in your heart, I will have a clear shot to your little whore.”

Marlena peeked around John’s shoulder and smiled back at Sierra.

Sierra hadn’t moved. She sat with the sheet pulled to her breasts, simply watching Marlena. There was a strange glint to her gaze, a darkening of those marbled gray eyes that warned John she was up to something.

He just prayed it was something that wouldn’t get her killed.

Turning his gaze back to Marlena, he stared at the gun once again. She was too far away from him to jump her. He wouldn’t have a chance of getting to her before she fired.

“John, I know you so well,” Marlena murmured. “Well enough that we’re going to take your little houseboat from the docks and go down the lake a bit. I’d hate to have anyone see me leaving once I’ve completed this little task.”

He shook his head. “I’m not going to cooperate with this, Marlena. You’re not going to kill anyone.”

Her smile was condescending. “Don’t test me, John. I know your guilt complex. I was going to be nice and kill you first, but if you keep pushing, then I’ll kill your little whore first and make you watch.”

John’s jaw clenched. He was growing sick of hearing Sierra referred to as a whore.

Marlena laughed. “I can see how irritated you’re becoming, lover.”

John shook his head again. “Not irritated, Marlena, confused perhaps. What makes you think I’m going to allow you to do any of this?”

He was perhaps two feet closer. Not nearly enough.

From his periphery he glimpsed Sierra moving. She pulled his robe from the headboard, slid to the edge of the mattress, and began putting it on slowly, drawing Marlena’s gaze.

Marlena laughed. A light, amused sound. “Do you truly think I’m here alone, John?”

Fuck. He had hoped she was there alone. He had prayed she was.

As Sierra tied the belt of the robe around her waist, another figure moved up the stairs. John wasn’t surprised. He’d be damned if anything could surprise him at this point.

Gerard. He wanted to disbelieve the fact that his former friend was actually there, but he couldn’t quite do it.

“You’re taking too long,” Gerard snapped at Marlena. “I’ve untied the boat and we’re ready to move out. Bring them downstairs.”

John stared at the other man, gauging the icy, merciless intent in his face, and John knew there was the possibility he and Sierra were really fucked now.

“Why, Gerard?” That part made very little sense.

Gerard glanced back at him coolly. “Who do you think chose you for Marlena to go after? Who do you think is her backer in the organization, John? Her reputation wasn’t the only one damaged here. The only way to fix this is to get rid of you.” He glanced at Sierra. “And your troublemaking little bitch.”

Where Marlena had appeared almost playful, Gerard was deadly serious.

“See, none of this makes sense,” John pointed out. “You should have been smart enough to know that even if I had married her, I would have never let her use me.”

“You would have once she had a child,” Gerard informed him. “As you said, I know you, John. And I know your weaknesses.”

Yes, he did. John would have protected his child, but never by allowing himself to be manipulated. He would have found a way to resolve any threat. But how the hell was he supposed to resolve this one?

“Let’s go.” Gerard stepped back and motioned to the stairs. “The security on the controls requires a passcode that my electronics hasn’t cracked yet and I’m growing impatient. You’re going to input the code or Sierra’s going to die right in front of your eyes.” He smiled. “And I know about the fake codes on these boats, John. Push those numbers in, and you’ll regret it.”

But Gerard didn’t know about Natches Mackay and his little paranoias. Paranoias that had caused the other man to tinker a bit with the security he’d had installed.

Waiting for Sierra, John kept her close to his side as they moved to the stairs, his hand at her waist tightening, warning her to caution.

Moving to the living area, John walked across the floor to the console that sat off the sitting area with its old-fashioned ship wheel, controls, and monitors.

He placed Sierra in front of him and started praying.

Turning the key, the monitor flashed the demand for the passcode and John punched in the code that would immediately alert the Mackay family that the need for help was now dire. But if they hadn’t arrived yet, there was a chance they were too far away to arrive at all.

It also slowed down the motor, which chugged sluggishly.

“What’s the problem?” Gerard’s voice vibrated with anger now. “Don’t play games with me, John.”

“It’s not a game, Gerard,” John snapped back. “You should have done your homework. I haven’t had this boat out of the marina but twice this summer for a reason.”

That reason being that he’d been helping the Mackays on various projects, but no one should know that. And if he knew Gerard, the man hadn’t done his homework. That was normal for him, come to think of it.

Turning the motor over again, he played it out as long as possible, pushing buttons, staring at the monitors in confusion. It wasn’t going to last much longer. Where the hell was the cavalry when he needed them?

In front of him, Sierra’s hand covered his as he laid it comfortingly against her hip and moved it lower with a subtle nudge. Then lower.

John barely held back his response to the feel of the gun in the pocket. He hadn’t forgotten about it, it was simply that he normally kept the weapon on the bottom shelf of the bed table.

He hadn’t been able to get to it himself because Marlena had been watching so closely. But John had been shielding Sierra as she moved from the bed and evidently she had managed to slip it from the shelf.

His resourceful little Sierra.

He fiddled with the key, tapped a monitor, pushed his hand into the pocket of Sierra’s robe, and gripped the gun.

He would only have a second.

He had to find a way to take out Gerard, and hopefully to disarm Marlena in no more than a second or two.

That first moment of surprise would be the only chance he had.

“I’m going to need to check the electronics,” he sighed, glancing back to Gerard.

“And that would be where?” Gerard asked icily.

“Below the controls.” John nodded to the small door at the bottom of the console.

“Move back.” Gerard waved the gun at him.

John and Sierra did as he said as Marlena moved closer, her weapon pointing toward them, her gaze hardening.

“Please don’t try anything, John,” she warned him quietly.

Gerard knelt, worked the panel loose, and John moved.

As he did, mayhem suddenly exploded through the boat.

The long, wide window at the side of the console shattered as a hard male form launched itself into the room. The front door burst in and John jumped for Gerard.

He had almost moved too late. Gerard was coming up with the weapon when John jerked hold of him and slammed his head into the console as the gun went off.

John felt the bullet tear along his bicep, the fiery blaze of pain shocking him for a moment, giving Gerard the opening he needed to come back.

Another gun fired.

Gerard stared at John in shock, in surprise, as a bloom of red began to stain across the perfectly pressed white silk shirt he wore.

In the distance, he heard Marlena screaming in denial as Dawg Mackay quickly restrained her. She was fighting him tooth and nail, screeching when Sierra walked up to her and smacked her full handed across the face with enough force to immediately shut her up.

Gerard fell to the floor of the boat, his gaze sightless. Marlena shut up, thankfully, and Sierra turned back to John.

“It’s over now,” she said softly, those gray eyes so filled with pain that his heart broke for her.

TWELVE

Sierra felt John lift her in his arms and move to the couch where he sat down with her, holding her close against him, breathing deep and hard as Dawg Mackay pushed a restrained Marlena into a chair on the other side of the room.

“How fucking romantic,” she snarled. “You’re so weak, Sierra. So stupid. Do you truly believe fucking him is going to hold him to you?”

She didn’t. She had always known better. It wasn’t fucking him that would hold him to her.

“Loving him will be enough.”

Marlena laughed at that.

“Shut the fuck up, Marlena.” John’s voice held a vein of weariness. “Your little games are over, and I’ve simply had enough of your mouth for the moment.”

“You stupid country hick,” she cried out. “You could have had everything with me.”

“He could have had nothing.” Sierra pulled herself from John’s grip, stood, and glared at the other woman in rising fury. “You’ve destroyed Gerard, yourself, and now you actually believe you would have done anything but destroy John?”